Category: Ammonia Plants

SUMMARY STATUS:Planning Phase
First announced in September 2016, Pacific Coast Fertilizer's plans to build a new ammonia plant have been in development for some time and the joint venture includes heavyweight industrial partners. In late 2017, the city began initial work on an environmental impact statement; the start of construction is still years away.

SUMMARY STATUS:Planning Phase
In January 2016, investors announced plans to re-establish Phibro, the storied commodities trader. Five months later, in May 2016, Phibro announced its intention to purchase the gasification units of a decommissioned "clean coal" power plant, which it would use to produce ammonia from petroleum coke. Since then there has been scant news, except of preparations for debt financing and staff hires, but project developers describe solid progress. In April 2018, the project submitted its air permit application.

SUMMARY STATUS:Cancelled
In July 2015, the Louisiana governor's office announced that Lithuanian investors intended to build an ammonia plant in Pollock, by retrofitting an idled biodiesel plant. The air permit was issued in December 2016, disclosing project details. Construction was going to begin in 2017 for start-up in 2019 but, in April 2017, the project was "put on hold indefinitely."

SUMMARY STATUS:Planning Phase
Midwest BioEnergy is planning a series of small waste-to-ammonia plants at municipal and industrial sites in the heart of the ammonia fertilizer market. The Monmouth plant will be the "proof of concept." Some equity in place; debt financing secured, contingent upon equity investment.

SUMMARY STATUS:Planning Phase
In May 2015, Agrifos and Borealis announced their agreement to develop a "world-scale" ammonia plant, for start-up in "early 2019." Work has yet to begin, so that schedule is implausible. The location was never specified, but was to be on the Gulf Coast, Texas. The plant was going to use hydrogen feedstock. Borealis intended to have a significant equity stake and a long-term off-take contract for 40% of the ammonia.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
In April 2018, Yara announced that the Freeport ammonia plant was operational. Start-up was delayed from the original 2017 target, in part by Hurricane Harvey. Yara and BASF held a groundbreaking ceremony in July 2015, five months after the companies confirmed their investment decision and announced details of their joint venture relationship, the EPC contract award, and a 20-year feedstock supply contract.

SUMMARY STATUS:Abandoned
Invista cancelled this project because it saw no benefit to producing its own ammonia instead of buying it on the open market. Apparently they expect the price of ammonia to fall when the other new plants start up.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
Simplot began building its new ammonia plant, adjacent to its existing phosphate fertilizer plant, in October 2014. The project was initially scheduled to be complete in Q3 2016, but delays pushed this back. The new plant was mechanically complete in March 2017 and became fully operational in September 2017. Simplot's investment is "one of the largest in company history," and makes it self-sufficient for ammonia.

SUMMARY STATUS:Planning
In December 2017, this proposed ammonia-urea plant was relaunched as Projet Bécancour: a methanol-urea production facility. IFFCO Canada is still the primary project sponsor, making good on its promise, when it put the plant on hold in October 2016, that "Le projet n'est pas mort." The brownfield plant was originally announced in 2012 for a 2017 start-up, but was put on hold repeatedly when construction costs ballooned from $1.2 to more than $2.0 billion, natural gas feedstock supply could not be secured, and the urea market tanked.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
Built in 1992, the Saskferco project was, until 2016, the newest world-scale, natural gas-based ammonia plant in North America. It was purchased by Yara in 2008, and expanded in 2008-9. Yara considered building a new brownfield ammonia-urea plant but, in 2013, cancelled those plans because costs grew too high and it had concerns about overcapacity.

SUMMARY STATUS: Ammonia expansion Cancelled, Urea brownfield Operational
In April 2017, Agrium "successfully commissioned" its brownfield urea plant at Borger, which had been under construction since March 2014, more than a year behind schedule and 10% over budget. An expected debottleneck of the ammonia line was cancelled in 2015. In January 2018, Nutrien was formed through a "merger of equals" between Agrium and PotashCorp that was originally announced in September 2016.

SUMMARY STATUS:Cancelled
Agrebon is no longer developing the Casselton plant. There have been no announcements regarding this site since April 2013. The team behind Agrebon regrouped as Bayotech, which continues to develop small-scale, modular ammonia reactors but shifts the team's focus away from biomass feedstocks.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
Donaldsonville began producing ammonia in 1966. Today, the site is a collection of individual plants, variously owned across the decades by CF Industries as well as Terra, Triad, Mississippi Chemical, First Mississippi, and Ampro. The new ammonia plant was due to start-up in early 2016, but only became operational in October 2016; the new urea plant was commissioned in November 2015, and the new UAN plant in March 2016. Donaldsonville is now "the largest nitrogen facility in the world."

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
El Dorado has been producing nitrogen since 1944, when the US army built the Ozark Ordnance Works. LSB Industries began construction on its new ammonia plant in November 2013 but costs spiraled out of control and start-up was delayed. LSB's share price fell off a cliff, followed by sweeping changes in management; the company was stabilized by a financing deal and asset sales, and LSB's plants may still be up for sale. The new ammonia plant started up in May 2016 and has been producing above nameplate capacity.

SUMMARY STATUS:Construction Phase
Koch is expanding its Enid plant, the "single largest project investment in company history," increasing capacity on both ammonia lines, debottlenecking the existing urea plant, and building a new urea plant. The ground-breaking took place in October 2014; the project is slightly behind schedule, but construction was expected to be complete in 2017.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
Faustina has been producing ammonia since 1968. Mosaic chose to implement an emissions reduction project in 2017 instead of a debottleneck at Faustina. In October 2013, Mosaic abandoned plans for a $1.1 billion ammonia brownfield plant, because it became "unnecessary" after Mosaic acquired CF Industries' phosphate operations. In early 2018, Mosaic derated the capacity at Faustina.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
Port Neal's new ammonia-urea plant started up in December 2016. CF Industries announced the project in late 2012 and began construction in 2013; project costs increased considerably during construction, and start-up was about six-months behind schedule. The new plants are now running at or above capacity.

SUMMARY STATUS:Operational
The Waggaman ammonia plant started up in 2016. Construction began in December 2013, they held a "dedication ceremony" in late September 2016, and announced "successful completion of the performance testing process" and "take over [of] management and operation" in October 2016. The project claims to have come in on budget, although construction saw major cost overruns. On the site of Cornerstone Chemical's Fortier plant, "WALA" sells its ammonia to Cornerstone and merchant traders, as well as making Dyno Nobel self-sufficient for ammonia in the US. In 2017, Cornerstone was sold to a new owner.